Making decisions and dealing with consequences

Question: The masters say we’re not in the River of Life if we’re not making decisions, that we don’t make decisions because we fear making mistakes. But at the same time, mistakes we make do have consequences, and we can’t go back to the point before we made the mistakes. That is understandable, but how do you not fear making mistakes? Just go through whatever it is, at least making a decision whether it’s a mistake or not?

This answer was given by Kim Michaels at a conference in Holland.

Kim: The short answer is you read my latest book, Warrior of Peace, because it talks about that in great depth, more than I can go into here. I think part of the idea is to realize that, of course, there are consequences that we would rather avoid, and they are unpleasant for us. But you have to come to a point where you realize that the physical conditions cannot define you. They don’t define who you are because you are a spiritual being. When you realize that, it’s like there is really no condition so terrible that it can prevent you from being who you are and moving forward on your path. That makes it easier to deal with.

I know there are obviously some consequences that are very harsh, harder to live with than others. Still, we are spiritual beings. The main challenge we face in the material world is to not let the material world define us, define how we see ourselves. I think if you keep that in mind, it becomes a little easier to look at these consequences. It’s really when you are identified with a certain sense of self, which really would not like that thing to have happened, then it’s really hard, and you can’t be non-attached. You can’t separate yourself from the consequences.

It’s almost like you think that you have been destroyed or put down, or you’ve made a mistake that you can never recover from because it’s so bad. That is, of course, exactly what your ego and the dark forces want you to believe, that you have now made a mistake and you can never be redeemed. When you start seeing that’s not reality, then I think it becomes a lot easier to deal with those consequences.

Comment: But in the world that we live in, you can’t escape the consequences.

Kim: No, but you never have been able to in the physical. I understand that, and it is very harsh. I mean, it IS very harsh. You can make what seems to be a fairly innocent choice, and all of a sudden you are facing a severe consequence that can never be undone. I think the challenge basically is to say: “Yes, but it still doesn’t define who I am. I can still be who I am and acknowledge who I am, regardless of these outer conditions.”

You might have a person who says: “I wish I had dark hair. Why isn’t it black? I would be a much better person if I had black hair.” Most of us would look at that and say: “But your hair color doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t define who you are. You can live with it.”

We need to come to the point where we look at any aspect of the material world the same way: It’s just a condition. I know it’s not easy, but basically what the Zen Buddhists are saying – and the masters are saying it too – is that you need to transcend the consciousness that this is right and wrong, this is bad, this is good. Everything is just a condition, and it’s not a matter of: “Is this going to destroy you or prevent you from going forward on the path?” You just move forward.

It’s just like a rock that falls in the stream. The water doesn’t sit there and say: “Oh, no, I’ll never reach the ocean.” It just flows around it, and that’s what we have to do. We have to flow around the condition and say: “It can’t define me. It can’t stop me on my path.”

Comment: It seems sometimes that, whatever decision I make, the result is not nice consequences. So then you start thinking: “Oh, is that why I have this?”

Kim: Of course. It’s easy for me to stand here and say this. I’m not saying that I can always do it.

Comment: One of the things that I have done in the past, and probably still do, is allow the decision to be made externally. In other words, I don’t have to make the decision because another situation has forced the decision on me. Then I disappoint myself because I didn’t make a decision. So I avoid making decisions, decisions are made for me, and therefore I lack the ability to have made the decision. I regret that. I understand that if I make a choice and it gets worse for me than what it was, I’d like to go back to what it was and probably can’t. But unless I make the decision, I’m not in control of making the decision.

Kim: Right. We would all like real life to be like it is on the computer. It has an Undo button, and we could just go back a couple of steps.

Comment: I think it was three years ago that I was in a bad situation and Kim said to me: “You know the point is about making decisions. Situations happen in your life, but you must make the decision.” At that point things changed because I started to make decisions, and the consequences were not so bad.

Kim: That is also, again, because you were divided in yourself. You weren’t clear. So you were standing there, couldn’t move out of that situation you were in.

Comment: Actually the right thing you should do is the decision. You go forward. You go forward because you made the choice.

Comment: Don’t become a victim of the decision. Learn from it and move on.

Comment: And to not make a decision is a decision in itself. If you don’t make a decision, that’s a decision also.

Kim: If you don’t make a decision and something happens, then you get down on yourself for not having made the decision. Then you just need to make the decision not to get down on yourself.

Comment: Exactly, you hit the point exactly. So if I make the decision, I’m in control. If I don’t make the decision consciously, then something else is in control, and all they’re doing is pressing the left button and that goes up a bit, and then the right button.

Kim: And it’s not even just a matter of being in control. I think it’s just a matter of not being divided. Because if you’re letting some outer situation make decisions for you, it’s because you’re divided. You are probably afraid of making the decision because you’re concerned about the consequences.

Comment: I suspect that the fallen ones – and I’ll use that term – would love to have you in that situation where you are divided and can’t make a decision, so that they can use you just like a seesaw.

Kim: Let’s just say that life is like a computer game. You may not have played computer games yourself, but you’ve probably seen kids sitting there playing these computer games. You’re sometimes wondering how long they can keep playing these games. Don’t they get tired of it? The fact is, there usually comes a point where now they have figured out how the game works. Every computer game has certain parameters, and once you figure out what they are, you can beat the game every time. Once they figure that out, they get tired of it, and then maybe they move on to another game.

This is how life is. The physical octave presents us with outer circumstances, and most of the people in the world are at that point where they really don’t want to make decisions for themselves. They don’t want to take charge of their lives. They actually want life to throw things at them so they can say: “Well, I am a victim. It’s not my fault. I just have to react to what’s happening. I don’t have any control over this.” They’re playing a game, and they haven’t gotten tired of it yet, and that’s why they can keep playing it indefinitely.

I think we are all playing that game with the outer consequences and the outer circumstances until we get to the point where we say: “I don’t want to play it anymore. I figured out how this works, and I see that life can keep doing this for the next hundred embodiments, but I have had enough. I want to get up there and play a different kind of game.”

Comment: From a linear point of view neurology shows that we aren’t making decisions at all. Our brains are making them a few seconds before. So it’s all a matter of consciousness. The consciousness level we have determines the decisions we make, so being fed up with the game is, in fact, choosing another level of consciousness. Then we have a new game of domino stones rolling over by every decision you make, which your brain has made a few seconds before.

Comment: When you say the brain, you mean the higher consciousness.

Comment: No, no, just the physical brain. Neurology has shown that your physical brain makes a decision a few seconds before you think you make a decision.

Comment: Can that be?

Kim: I understand what you are saying, but I would have to say, given my understanding of the ascended master teachings, that is because science doesn’t understand the wholeness of the mind, the four levels of the mind. For most people the conscious mind is the lowest, but it really shouldn’t be.

I think what is happening is that there is a decision that’s filtering down from the identity, mental, and emotional levels, and it reaches the brain before it reaches the conscious mind. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I think actually when we become conscious, we can be conscious of the higher levels before even the brain reacts.

Comment: I fully agree with you.

Kim: It’s just that neurology hasn’t caught up.

Comment: I said from a linear point of view.

Kim: Yeah, yeah, I understand.

Comment: Professor Doctor Hawkins – not to be confused with the man in the wheelchair – a psychiatrist, showed that, when you arrive at a certain level of consciousness, the brain shows a vortex that goes outside the brain that is as fast as light speed. So at that point you have most perfectly gotten a connection with your higher self, and then the decisions you are making are the same decisions.

Comment: As Kim said, it takes time to filter through. When you said linear and then you mention the rest of it, that’s very important always to listen to the whole, to put it together rather than chop it off.

Comment: Makes sense. I got that a few seconds ago, and I am just putting it out there now.